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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26838172">what once was lost</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/hi_raeth/pseuds/hi_raeth'>hi_raeth</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>retweet (twitter fics) [10]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Ancient Greek Religion &amp; Lore Fusion, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Hades!Ben, Mentions of previous major character death, Persephone!Rey, Safe to Read if You're Triggered by Pregnancy, featuring Cerberus the fluffy puppy, originally posted on twitter, reincarnated Cerberus too, reincarnated Rey</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 12:28:58</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,113</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26838172</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/hi_raeth/pseuds/hi_raeth</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt queen <a href="https://twitter.com/galacticidiots">@galacticidiots</a> strikes again: <a href="https://twitter.com/galacticidiots/status/1310120430225838080">"CERBERUS (THE MIDDLE ONE BITES). IF LOST, PLEASE CALL 666-666-666".</a></p><p>Alternatively: the one in which a three-headed puppy reunites our star-crossed lovers.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>retweet (twitter fics) [10]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1639294</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>66</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>314</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Galactic Idiots Collection</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>what once was lost</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/BensCalligraphySet/gifts">BensCalligraphySet</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>What exactly does it say about Rey’s life when the discovery of a three-headed puppy in her backyard is met with nothing more than an amused little shake of her head?</p><p>“More to love,” she assures all three pairs of puppy eyes when the other two heads pop up from where they were hidden under a mass of fur to look at her almost warily, tilted at an angle that seems to question her acceptance of this recent development.</p><p>On a scale of “the forest is full of nymphs only I can see” to “I somehow survived a week in the wilderness as an abandoned baby”, a three-headed puppy charging into her yard in hot pursuit of a butterfly only to collapse into a puddle of fur falls somewhere firmly in the middle. Completely unperturbed, Rey holds out a hand for inspection and darts her eyes from one curious, sniffing puppy to another until all three tongues loll out to happily lick at her hand. She plops onto the ground then, sitting cross-legged in a sea of soft grass as the puppy launches itself into her lap with a happy little yelp and all three heads take turns getting scratches behind their ears.</p><p>In between it all a glint of <em>something</em> catches Rey’s eyes, and she reaches out to find a round tag affixed to a corded length of black leather wound around the puppy’s neck. The tag is cool and smooth to the touch, some kind of precious stone – onyx, if Rey has to guess, and much too heavy for a little puppy, but the lapful of fluff currently dozing in her garden doesn’t seem to mind.</p><p>Carved into the tag is a name, a warning, and a number:</p><p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
    <strong>
      <em>CERBERUS (THE MIDDLE ONE BITES)<br/>IF LOST, PLEASE CALL 666-666-666</em>
    </strong>
  </p>
</blockquote><p>Rey pauses her scratching to give the middle head – possibly the cutest of all, though it’s a close call – an assessing look. “You’re an absolute angel, aren’t you?”</p><p>It blinks at her, slow and heavy, and the only flash of teeth she gets to see is when all three heads suddenly yawn in tandem.</p><p>“Middle one bites, my arse. And the number! This has to be some kind of prank.” But she’s reaching for the phone in the back pocket of her cut-offs even as she says so, and soon enough Rey has one hand buried in a sea of soft fur and the other holding a ringing phone to her ear.</p><p>It rings, and rings, and then suddenly the call ends with a <em>click.</em></p><p>“Who loses their dog and doesn’t even have the decency to wait by the phone?” she huffs, tossing her phone onto the grass and fully prepared to spend her afternoon lazing in the sun with her newfound companion until their owner gets their shit together and calls back.</p><p>But then all of a sudden a shadow falls upon her, and a frown graces Rey’s face as she recalls the forecast for sunny skies, not a cloud in sight. She tips her head back to inspect the sky, only to find–</p><p>“I didn’t <em>lose </em>her,” a man - an actual man, standing in her backyard, having materialized out of thin air – grumbles in a smooth, deep voice that can only be described as cavernous. Rey continues to look up and up and <em>up</em> until finally, she finds a face to match to the voice.</p><p>And <em>oh</em>, does it match.</p><p>Deep-set eyes that look as dark as his voice sounds, hair inky black and silky smooth, shoulders as broad as the cavern his voice echoes from…</p><p>Rey blinks, feeling very much like middle Cerberus as she scrambles to get her thoughts together. In the end, the best she can come up with is: “Right, I’m sure letting your three-headed dog wander into a perfect stranger’s backyard was completely planned. You’re lucky it was me, any other house and you’d have news choppers clogging up the sky by now–”</p><p>Her tirade is cut short by the man’s sudden movement, all six feet something of him folding down to look her in the eye as a single word escapes him in a gasp. “<em>Kore?</em>”</p><p>“It’s just Rey, actually,” she automatically corrects him, though usually the name guessing game only comes after she’s introduced herself and fielded numerous questions about what <em>Rey</em> is short for. “Wait, how did you–?”</p><p>A hand – shaking, gloved, and huge – reaches out between them and stops just short of her cheek. Rey watches it tremble in mid-air, drags her gaze up his fingers and arms and neck all the way back to shaking lips and wide eyes.</p><p>“It<em> is</em> you,” the man whispers, voice small with shock, and it does something to her, seeing and hearing him like this. He’s a total stranger, possibly even a complete weirdo, so why does this moment tug at her heartstrings? “By the stars, it’s you.”</p><p>Her breath catches in her throat and her heart skips a beat and her vision grows blurry. “I’m crying,” Rey forces the words through a sudden lump in her throat. “Why am I crying?”</p><p>He laughs, this mystery man who owns a three-headed puppy and has made her cry for no discernible reason. It’s a small, wet sound, more of an amused huff punctuated by a sob than a real laugh, but some way, somehow, it draws her close enough to rest her cheek in his waiting hand. And all at once, it hits her: the comforting warmth of his gloved hand, the familiar scent of crackling logs and winter air, the life snatched away from her by a vengeful Titan.</p><p>The puppy her husband gifted her just before it all ended, a reincarnation of their loyal dog lost in the battle of Tartarus.</p><p>When she collapses into Ben’s – Ben, Hades, <em>her husband</em> – arms, Cerberus barely even makes a peep at suddenly being crushed between two sobbing, hysterical humans.</p><p>No, not humans.</p><p>Gods.</p><p>“I thought–“ Ben, king of the underworld, most feared of all the gods, Titan-slayer, <em>Ben</em> is sobbing into her hair, shaking in her arms. “I thought I would never see you again.”</p><p>And although she’s spent a lifetime feeling the same way without ever knowing it, although they’re both scarred by loneliness and loss, in that moment all Rey – Kore, Persephone, <em>queen</em> – can do is draw back to cup her husband’s face with a smile.</p><p>“I promised,” she reminds him, a promise made so long ago and forgotten until now. “I promised to come back to you, always.”</p><p>And so she has, the lost queen killed so many decades ago finally returned to her pantheon, her kingdom, her love.</p><p>(And her puppy, of course.)</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>As I tweeted immediately upon finishing this fic on Twitter: "Fran really just ended my month-long block with a prompt so compelling it made me write a thousand-word ficlet just like that, HER POWER"</p><p>In other words: this is basically a @galacticidiots stan account now and I have zero regrets or complaints. Thanks once again to Fran for this adorable prompt, and thank you to everyone for reading! As always, if you enjoyed this please don't hesitate to leave a comment or <a href="https://twitter.com/hiraeth_writes">come say hi on Twitter.</a></p></blockquote></div></div>
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